Apparatus and process for forming mineral fiber



Jan. 10, 1956 R. M. DOWNEY 2,729,849

APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR FORMING MINERAL FIBER Filed Nov. 17, 1951United States Patent 1 2,729,849 APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR FORMINGMINERAL FIBER Richard Merritt Downey, North Judson, Ind., assignor, bydirect and mesne assignments, of one-fourth to Midwest Insulations,Inc., Wabash, Ind., a corporation of Indiana, one-fourth to IndustrialProducts Company, Inc., Mount Pleasant, Tenn., a corporation ofTennessee, one-fourth to The Carney Company, Inc., Mankato, Minn., acorporation of Minnesota, and one-fourth to Airseal Insulations, Inc.,Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 17, 1951,Serial No. 256,907 7 Claims. (Cl. 182.5)

The present invention relates to an improved process and apparatus forforming mineral fiber and the like.

One of the objects of the invention is to increase the efliciency of thepresent disc or platen type of fiber forming process by forcing andfirmly holding the molten mineral substance against the surface of thedisc while it is caused to travel radially thereof due to rapid rotationand be thrown from the peripheral edge in fine fibrous streams throughcentrifugal force, and which streams may be further affected by asurrounding series of jet streams, such as steam jets. This isaccomplished by rotating the disc in a vertical or substantiallyvertical plane and causing the molten mineral to be discharged fromabove it so as to fall downwardly adjacent the forward vertical face ofthe rotating disc, and surrounding the disc with a series of steam jetsdirected axially thereof inducing a back pressure and partial vacuumadjacent the forward face of the disc such as to disintegrate thematerial and hold it against the face of the disc in the manner of afilm under such induced pressure to thereby prevent particles of themineral from sloughing off of the face of the disc. Such film ofmaterial thus held in intimate contact with the face of the disc, will,through centrifugal force be thrown from the peripheral edge thereofinto a series of fibrous streams.

A. further object of the invention is to provide means whereby a singlelarge stream of molten mineral substance may be distributed uniformlyupon the exterior surface of a vertically rotating disc or platter tothereby form on said exterior surface a relatively thin film of themolten material which, by the rapid rotation of the disc or platter isdisintegrated and forcibly directed off the peripheral edge of the disctangentially and thereby broken up into fibrous streams. At the sametime directly across these fibrous streams of tangentially directedmaterial there is directed a jet or jets of fluid under pressure,preferably steam, which jets may be caused to rotate at approximatelythe same velocity as the tangentially rotating stream and substantiallyin the same direction.

A further object of my invention is to provide means whereby therotating disc onto which the stream of molten material is directed maybe preserved and maintained by the cooling effect of the steam or fluidproviding jet streams.

It is a further object of the present invention to impart a desirabledegree of cooling to the molten mineral substance as it comes intointimate contact with the rotating disc or platter as a result of thecooling effect of the steam or fluid used for providing the jetdischarge.

For the purpose of disclosing my invention I have illus trated anembodiment thereof in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is aside elevation, more or less diagrammatic, of an apparatus for carryingout my invention.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof, and

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a modified form of platen.

In the embodiment of one invention disclosed I provide 2,729,849Patented Jan. 10, 1956 a rotary nozzle 1 which comprises essentially ahollow cylindrical member having formed in the front face thereof, anannular row of jet discharge openings 2. Within this row of jetdischarge openings 2, I provide a disc or platen 3 which is of smallerdiameter than the diameter of the circle in which the jets or nozzles 2are arranged, and which may be, if desired, a separate disc or platen,or preferably is merely a thickened portion of the front face of thenozzle 1. This nozzle 1 is carried on a hollow shaft 4 mounted insuitable bearings 5 and 6 and adapted to receive at its rear end 7 asuitable supply of steam or other suitable fluid under pressure. Theshaft 4 and with it the nozzle 1 are rotated through the medium of adriving belt 8 operating on a pulley 9 on the shaft 4 and driven by anysuitable means. The nozzle and disc are mounted so that the disc israpidly rotated in a substantially vertical plane, although if desiredthe parts may be tilted so that the stream of molten material may beeffectively delivered against and over the front face of the disc.Mounted above the nozzle is a slag trough 10 which is supplied withmolten mineral substance or skoria and from its delivery end delivers astream 11 of this molten material to a position for causing it to falldown in front of and closely adjacent the forward face of the disc 3.The spacing of the stream of molten material relatively to the frontface of the disc 3 may be accurately attained by providing suitableadjusted means 12 for the slag trough whereby the delivery mouth of thetrough may be adjusted relatively to the plane of the front face of thedisc. A shield 13 extends across the face of the nozzle behind the slagstream 11 and in front of the nozzles as they cross the slag stream sothat there will not be delivered against this slag stream a jet of steamor other fluid under pressure to thereby divert the stream from itsfalling plane.

In operation, as the jets 14 are projected from the jet nozzles 2, thereis created a low pressure area adjacent to the forward face of said diskto force the slag stream 11 in the direction of the arrow 15 against thedisk face to spread and disintegrate the stream over said face.

As a result this molten material spreads itself over the face of thedisc in a relatively uniform thin film, and due to the rapid rotation ofthe disc is thrown off tangentially from its peripheral edge asindicated at Fig. 2, being broken up at the same time into thin streamssuch as indicated at 16. Bear in mind that at the same time there isprojected angularly across these tangential streams of fibrous portions16, a series of jets 14 from the nozzle 2,

which jets are shown in the illustrated embodiment of the invention asrotating in the same direction and at the same speed as the tangentialmovement of a fibrous material being thrown off the peripheral edge ofthe disc or platter. Or to put it another way, due to the rotary motionthe material is discharged tangentially from the periphery of the discin the form of a plurality of still fluid streams which are projectedinto the path of the steam or fluid issuing from the rotary jets, whilesaid jets are travelling at essentially the same velocity and direction,and in a plane parallel to the streams. As a result of this, there is asecondary division and attenuation of the material with the subsequentcooling to form fibers.

Due to the fact that the molten mineral material is forced by the backpressure or partial vacuum into intimate contact with the solid metallicsurface of the disc, it is necessary to cool the metallic surface inorder to preserve and maintain its surface and shape, and it is to beobserved that in the present case the same fluid, generally steam, whichprovides the breakup jets, acts as a coolant for the nozzle, andparticularly a coolant for the disc 3 so that this disc will not becomedistintegrated or destroyed by the action of the molten material whichis delivered thereagainst.

In Fig. 3 I have illustrated a modified form of the disc 3 disclosed inFig. 1 wherein this disc 3 is somewhat dishshaped as at 17 to provide anannular rim 18 over which the film must flow before it is dischargedtangentially. This has some advantages in some instances as it providesfor the maintenance of a thickened film on the front face of the disc.

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a hollow headmounted for rotation in a substantially vertical plane and having aseries of spaced discharge jet openings circularly disposed in the outerface of said head and coaxial with the latter; a platen disk on the saidouter face arranged within the circle of said orifices, a hollow shaftcarrying said head and providing a conduit for delivering fluid underpressure to the interior of said head, means for rotating said shaft, amaterial trough disposed above said rotating head having a dischargeopening extending beyond the said outer face of said disk and deliveringa stream of molten material across and parallel with said outer face,and a shield disposed behind said stream and in front of the jetopenings as they pass behind said stream. 2. An apparatus for formingmineral fiber comprising a platen disk having a forward face disposed ina vertical plane, means for rapidly rotating said disk, means fordischarging a stream of molten material transversely of, parallel to andspaced from the said forward face of said disk, and a series of jetnozzles positioned about and adjacent the forward face of said disk fromwhich said fluid jets are discharged in a direction parallel to its axisof rotation to encompass an area forwardly of the face of said disk andto create a low pressure area adjacent the face of said disk to forcethe molten material against the said forward face, the rotation of saiddisk causing the said material to move radially over the face of saiddisk and into the path of said jets.

downwardly in spaced parallelism with the forward face of said disk tobe forced thereon by said partial vacuum subject to discharge from theperipheral edge thereof under centrifugal force, and means forpreventing the passage of the fluid delivered by the jet orificesthrough the falling stream of molten mineral substance.

4. Apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a hollow head mountedfor rotation in a substantially-vertical plane and having spaced jetopenings arranged in a circular series coaxially of and near theperiphery of said head and in the forward face thereof, a material atrough having a discharge spout disposed beyond said forward face todeliver a stream of molten material in spaced parallelism with andadjacent to said forward face, and means for supplying fluid throughsaid openings at a velocity to create a low pressure area adjacent thefor: ward face of said disk to force said molten stream against saidface.

5. The method of producing mineral fiber which consists in directing astream of molten material in spaced parallelism with the forward face ofa disk rotating in a substantially vertical plane, directing a stream offluid outwardly of said forward face and in substantialparallelism withthe aixis of said disk, the velocity of said stream of fluid being suchas to create a low pressure area adjacent the face of the disk wherebyto force said molten stream against said face.

6. Apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a hollow head mountedfor rotation in a substantially vertical plane and having spaced jetopenings arranged in a circular series coaxially of and near theperiphery of said head and in'the forward face thereof, a materialtrough having a discharge spout disposed beyond said forward face todeliver a stream of molten material in spaced parallelism with andadjacent to said forward face, means for supplying fluid through saidopenings under sufficient pressure to create a low pressure areaadjacent the forward face of said disk to force said molten streamagainst said face, and a shield substantially wider than said stream ofmaterial interposed between the latter and the forward face of said diskin the path of fluid projected from said jet openings.

7. Apparatus for producing .mineral wool and the like which comprises adisc rotatable about a substantially horizontal axis, an annular blownozzle of a diameter slightly larger than that'of the disc andpositioned so as to blow an annular blast past the periphery of saiddisc 7 at a velocity to create a low pressure area adjacent to the facethereof, and means for flowing molten material by gravity in front ofsaid disc sufliciently close to the front surface thereof to cause saidmaterial to be drawn.

by suction induced by said low pressure area against the front face ofsaid disc.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 65,339Butcher, Jr. et al. June 4,1867 687,524 Fellner Nov. 26, 1901 1,051,844Passow Jan. 28, 1913 1,834,687 Davis Dec. 1, 1931 2,318,244 McClure YMay 4, 1943 2,328,714 Drill et al. Sept. 7, 1943 2,470,569 Meighan etal. May 17, 1949 2,587,710 Downey Mar. 4, 1952

7. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING MINERAL WOOL AND THE LIKE WHICH COMPRISES ADISC ROTATABLE ABOUT A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL AXIS, AN ANNULAR BLOWNOZZLE OF A DIAMETER SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN THAT OF THE DISC ANDPOSITIONED SO AS TO BLOW AN ANNULAR BLAST PAST THE PERIPHERY OF SAIDDISC AT A VELOCITY TO CREATE A LOW PREASSURE AREA ADJACENT TO THE FACETHEREOF, AND MEANS FOR FLOWING MOLTEN MATERIAL BY GRAVITY IN FRONT OFSAID DISC SUFFICIENTLY CLOSE TO THE FRONT SURFACE THEREOF TO CAUSE SAIDMATERIAL TO BE DRAWN BY SUCTION INDUCED BY SAID LOW PRESSURE AREAAGAINST THE FRONT FACE OF SAID DISC.